Top 10 Rose Bowl teams

The John McKay team called one of the best in college football history capped a 12-0 season with a resounding 42-17 win over No. 3 Ohio State. USC had been atop the polls from the first week (after No. 1 Nebraska was upset by UCLA) and defeated five teams ranked No. 18 or better along the way, never trailing in the second half of any game. The roster included Mike Rae at quarterback, Anthony Davis at tailback behind fullback Sam Cunningham, plus Lynn Swann, Charle Young, Gary Jeter, Richard Wood and Charles Phillips.

2005-06 Texas:

The teams that Vince Young led to back-to-back Rose Bowl victories could celebrate winning the national championship in 2006 when it outlasted a USC team that had won 34 in a row and possessed two Heisman Trophy winners. Mack Brown’s 13-0 Longhorns, ranked No. 2 for the entire season leading into the ’06 Rose Bowl, came into the game having defeated Colorado, 70-3, in the Big 12 title game. They put up 66 points against Kansas, 62 against Baylor, 60 against Louisiana-Lafayette and 52 against Texas Tech during the regular season. Texas’s 652 points were an NCAA record. And its Rose Bowl win over the Trojans was No. 800 in the program’s history

2001 Miami: The first BCS national champs crowned at the Rose Bowl in an arranged No. 1 vs. No. 2, these Hurricanes ended up defeating five teams ranked No. 14 or better during the season -- such as 65-7 drubbing of No. 12 Washington and a 59-0 triumph over No. 14 Syracuse, not long before their 37-14 win over Heisman winner Eric Crouch and Nebraska in Pasadena. Larry Coker’s team was loaded with 17 eventual first-round NFL draft picks, such as running backs Clinton Portis and Willis McGahee, free safety Ed Reed, tight ends Jeremy Shockey and Kellen Winslow II and strong safety Sean Taylor.

1968 Ohio State:

With Woody Hayes’ group of players known as the “Super Sophomores,” the Buckeyes’ Class of 1970 rolled into Pasadena and captured the national championship behind quarterback Rex Kern with a win over USC in the 1969 Rose Bowl. The team would come within two games of three straight undisputed national championships, eventually losing the ’71 Rose Bowl to Stanford. Aside from Kern, the three-year starters included Jack Tatum, Jim Stillwagon, John Brockington, Mike Sensibaugh, Bruce Jankowski and Tim Anderson. The College Football Hall of Fame includes Kern, Tatum and Stillwagon as members.

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2011 Texas Christian:

Because of the Bowl Championship Series selection process, the Horned Frogs made a rare appearance in Pasadena by virtue of their 12-0 record in the Mountain West. Rose Bowl organizers had to take them in for a matchup against Big Ten champion Wisconsin after Pac-10 champion Oregon qualified for the BCS title game instead (and Pac-10 runner up Stanford was picked for the Orange Bowl). Yet, TCU, with quarterback Andy Dalton and coach Gary Patterson, endeared them to the community after a 21-19 win, the first by a non-BCS team in nearly 80 years.

1947 Michigan:

The “Mad Magicians,” considered by many to be the greatest Wolverines team of all time, went undefeated and untied, and crushed USC 49-0 in the ’48 Rose Bowl. All-American halfback Bob Chappuis set two Rose Bowl game records with 279 total offensive yards and 14 pass completions.

1940 Stanford:

The “Wow Boys” benefitted from first-year coach Clark Shaughnessey’s “T” formation – quarterback Frankie Albert going under center to take the snap – which replaced the more common single wing. The Indians’ 21-13 win over Nebraska in the 1941 Rose Bowl certified the move as one the rest of the nation had to pay attention to.

1994 Penn State

The Big Ten champions, coached by Walter Camp winner Joe Paterno and led by No. 1 overall NFL draft pick Ki-Jana Carter, had reason to believe they’d have some kind of stake in the national championship after finishing 12-0 and knocking out Oregon, 38-20, in the 1995 Rose Bowl. The Bowl Coalition did not include the Big Ten or Pac-10 at the time, so it had no problem naming Nebraska as the national champion. The Nittany Lions, with Kerry Collins at quarterback, defeated No. 14 USC, No. 5 Michigan and No. 21 Ohio State during the regular season.

1992 Washington:

The Huskies’ 12-0 squad handled No. 4 Michigan, 34-14, in the 1993 Rose Bowl in Don James’ 17th season to claim a piece of a national championship, splitting it with 12-0 Miami. Eleven players went in the 1992 NFL draft, led by overall No. 1 choice Steve Emtman. For what it’s worth, Sports Illustrated played out a fantasy matchup between the Huskies and Hurricanes – and declared Washington, behind quarterback Billy Joe Hobert, a 18-17 winner in a “dream game” scenario.

1965 Michigan State

How do you lose a Rose Bowl game and still win a share of a national championship? The Spartans’ 14-12 loss to UCLA in the 1966 Rose Bowl, solidified by a missed two-point conversion, was only a conversation starter. Alabama wrestled away the AP crown, but Michigan State had the UPI coaches’ choice. Duffy Daughtery’s Big Ten champions that included Bubba Smith, Gene Washington, George Webster and Clinton Jones would be more famous for how it played out its ’66 season – undefeated until a classic 10-10 tie against Notre Dame in the season finale. But the ’65 squad laid the ground work.